The Theatre of Photography: staging, re-enactment and modalities of the frame

15th May 2015: 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Swedenborg Society, Wynter Room, 20 Bloomsbury Way, London, WC1A 2TH

Led by Dr Wiebke Leister

This study day will explore staging practices that engage both the camera and its visual histories into modes of theatre production, thus stressing how photography is performative, as such, when giving and enhancing the condition of the resulting images, i.e. scenarios that only exist for the camera. Including who is staged in those frames – the fame of the proscenium arch, the view finder of the camera and the border of the photographic image – and who or what might exist beyond it, off-frame, as if it had never been staged. In particular the relationship between model and photographer, which meanders between recording, reacting to cues, acting out and re-enacting, and how these translate to audiences. Wiebke Leister has invited a range of practitioners, theorists and historians approaching the subject from different photography, theatre and performance angles.

Organized as part of the programme of the Photography and the Contemporary Imaginary Research Hub.Find out more at: www.arts.ac.uk/research/research-environment/research-infrastructure/research-groups-networks-and-collaborations/photography–the-contemporary–imaginary/

The Theatre of Photography: staging, re-enactment and modalities of the frame

15th May 2015: 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Swedenborg Society, Wynter Room, 20 Bloomsbury Way, London, WC1A 2TH

Led by Dr Wiebke Leister

This study day will explore staging practices that engage both the camera and its visual histories into modes of theatre production, thus stressing how photography is performative, as such, when giving and enhancing the condition of the resulting images, i.e. scenarios that only exist for the camera. Including who is staged in those frames – the fame of the proscenium arch, the view finder of the camera and the border of the photographic image – and who or what might exist beyond it, off-frame, as if it had never been staged. In particular the relationship between model and photographer, which meanders between recording, reacting to cues, acting out and re-enacting, and how these translate to audiences. Wiebke Leister has invited a range of practitioners, theorists and historians approaching the subject from different photography, theatre and performance angles.

Organized as part of the programme of the Photography and the Contemporary Imaginary Research Hub.Find out more at: www.arts.ac.uk/research/research-environment/research-infrastructure/research-groups-networks-and-collaborations/photography–the-contemporary–imaginary/